Languages and Literature of Spain
Languages of Spain
Spain is a multilingual country with several official languages. Castilian Spanish (español) is the official language nationwide. Other co-official languages include:
- Catalan (català) in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands
- Valencian (valencià), a variety of Catalan, in the Valencian Community
- Galician (galego) in Galicia
- Basque (euskara) in the Basque Country and parts of Navarre
Origin of Spain’s Languages
All of Spain’s languages, except Basque, are derived from Latin and belong to the Romance language family.
Pre-Roman Languages
Before the arrival of the Romans, various peoples coexisted on the Iberian Peninsula (Celts, Iberians, Lusitanians), each with its own language.
Romanization
In the late 3rd century BC, the Romans landed in Ampurias (Girona), beginning the process of Romanization. The Hispanic population adopted Roman customs, legal and administrative systems, and the Latin language.
Fragmentation of Latin
After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, the spoken Latin in the peninsula began to fragment.
Birth of Peninsular Romance Languages
Around the 10th century, early Hispanic Romance languages differentiated: Galician-Portuguese, Castilian, Navarrese-Aragonese, Asturian-Leonese, and Mozarabic.
Castilian’s Predominance
The preeminence of Castilian led to the eventual disappearance of Mozarabic and limited the development of Asturian-Leonese and Navarrese-Aragonese.
Evolution of Castilian
Medieval Castilian (10th-15th Centuries)
Medieval Castilian differed significantly from modern Spanish in vocabulary, pronunciation, and orthography. During the reign of Alfonso X “the Wise” (1252-1284), the first standardization of the language was promoted. Arabisms like “olive,” “sugar,” “cotton,” “village,” “mayor,” and “mason” were incorporated.
Classical Castilian (16th-17th Centuries)
The publication of Grammar (1492) by Antonio de Nebrija marked the beginning of the Golden Age of Castilian. Italianisms such as “pilot,” “front,” and “balcony” were adopted, along with indigenisms like “chocolate,” “tomato,” “shark,” and “potato.”
Modern Spanish (18th-19th Centuries)
In 1713, the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) was founded to ensure the unity and stability of the language. It published the Dictionary of Authorities (1726), an Orthography (1741), and a Grammar (1771). Gallicisms like “interesting,” “jacket,” “pants,” “hotel,” and “sofa” were introduced.
Current Spanish (20th Century Onwards)
Current Spanish is characterized by the constant incorporation of neologisms, particularly Anglicisms.
The Regionalist Novel
During the first half of the 20th century, Hispanic realism was a unifying feature of narrative. Two specific notes characterize the regionalist novel of this period:
- The importance of nature (e.g., the Amazon in The Vortex by José Eustasio Rivera, the Venezuelan plains in Doña Bárbara by Rómulo Gallegos)
- The focus on political and social conflicts (e.g., The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela)
Jorge Luis Borges
The stories of Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges have had an enormous influence on later Latin American narrative. Two essential characteristics of Borges’s stories are:
- Anti-realism, not only through fantastical elements (e.g., “The Aleph”) but also through the absence of detailed descriptions of settings or direct imitation of reality.
- Anti-psychologism, as he often avoids delving into the characters’ psychology or motivations, reducing their lives to two or three significant scenes.
The Borgian Universe
- Identification of the universe with a vast library (“The Library of Babel”) or an infinite book (“The Book of Sand”) beyond human comprehension.
- Presence of mirrors and labyrinths, emphasizing the illusory and indecipherable nature of existence (e.g., “The Garden of Forking Paths”).
- References to other texts (e.g., “Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote“) and presentation of stories as glosses, translations, or quotes from other texts, real or apocryphal (e.g., “Brodie’s Report”).
The Novel of the Boom
From the late 1940s and especially during the following two decades, there was an explosion of Latin American fiction known as the “Boom.” This period, most representative of magical realism, features novels like One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, which tells the saga of the Buendía family, a paradigm of Hispanic America and the human condition. Recurrent themes include:
- Existential problems (lack of communication, death, the meaning of life) in novels like The Tunnel by Ernesto Sabato and Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar.
- The figure of the dictator, reflecting Latin American political reality, in novels like Mr. President by Miguel Ángel Asturias, I, the Supreme by Augusto Roa Bastos, and The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel García Márquez.
- The insertion of fantastical elements into the daily lives of characters, treated with naturalness, a hallmark of magical realism found in The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier, Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo, and One Hundred Years of Solitude.